In this crazy lockout shortened season, there is no doubt the Hornets have been utterly terrible. We have seen injuries to Eric Gordon, who has only appeared in two games for New Orleans this season. Carl Landry is now out for an extended period of time, taking away probably the best bench player this team has. The high energy player of Jason Smith continues to remain day to day after suffering a concussion. Now Jarrett Jack is expected to miss at least one week after suffering a knee injury of his own. Jack had missed a few games due to the injury, but returned to the starting lineup for the home game blowout loss to the Chicago Bulls in which he reinjured his knee. Chris Kaman who came off a 17 point, 9 rebound, and 3 blocks effort against the Bulls was also scratched from the lineup in last night’s game against Portland after suffering an ankle sprain during warmups.
So with so many players going down to injury, the Hornets decided to pick up guard Donald Sloan on a ten day contract. Sloan did appear in 5 games for the Atlanta Hawks this season putting up averages of 1.2 points, 1.0 rebounds, and 1.0 assists. More recently he put up insane numbers down in the D-League for the Erie Bayhawks scoring 24.8 points, 8.4 assists, and 5.2 rebounds in just over 40 minutes of play for the five games he played. In college, Sloan put up 17.8 ppg for the Texas A&M Aggies and was a first team Big 12 Conference selection his senior year.
This is an addition that I really like, and is certainly an upgrade over the recently let go Squeaky Johnson. At 24 there is more of a chance for a future with the team than Johnson at 29 would have had. This is a move that could pan out moving forward for the Hornets and I really look with all the injuries for Sloan to get solid playing time to prove himself. In last night’s loss to the Trailblazers we got to see a little bit of Donald as he made his New Orleans debut. In 11 minutes of action, Sloan was able to drop in 7 points on 3 of 5 shooting and added a couple of assists while backing up Grievis Vasquez. He did an excellent job of getting the ball up court under pressure, the only real flaw last night was given the task of defending the hot shooting Jamaal Crawford. All in all it was a good first effort and hope to see him succeed farther down the road.
With just over 30 days until the trade deadline, we should really start seeing rumors fly around the web and even some trades taking place. Right now it is obvious the Hornets are looking to move Chris Kaman, plus with the team just outright terrible right now we could see other players on the move as well. Look forward to see what Demps has up his sleeve and what new players will be donning the Hornets uniform in the upcoming month.
